Hydrogenaudio don't like us (Head-Fi) very much? - Page 6

For one's own personal enjoyment and rating, there really isn't any problem. Issues can come up, though, when recommending (or taking someone else's recommendation) on the assumption that everyone else's built-in processor is exactly like his/her own. While we all have the same general body parts, there's still a variability there, and placebo adds another layer of difference.

From what I've seen the "I'm right/you're wrong because I said so" arguments aren't very prevalent here, which is a refreshing change of pace from a lot of the online subjective discussions I've seen.

I'll go out on a limb and say that my HD595s are better than my iBuds.

40. Badly Drawn Boy - [The Hour Of Bewilderbeast #01] The Shining

Maybe to you.

Some of use however are aiming for the audio nirvana that is known as, tin can and string.

i think they can't tell the difference because half of them use 128kb mp3 ... which they say is "transparent", who know what they are using ? heck i cant tell the difference between 48k wma to lossless on $2 speakers.

This statement makes absolutely no sense.

Head of nail, meet hammer.

I have found HydrogenAudio useful more than a few times, but I don't go there to read or discuss how equipment sounds. Recently I haven't been coming to Head-Fi to read or discuss how equipment sounds either; I just hang out in the lounge. A significant amount of the advice offered on Head-Fi isn't even empirical (meaning guided by practical experience), let alone empirical in the scientific sense (which I don't even want). Headphones and related equipment develop reputations here, and some members with higher post counts advise newer members based on a piece of equipment's reputation instead of actual experience. Popping into a thread to tell someone: "The Opera is supposed to be a pretty warm amp so I think you are good" when you haven't heard anything even related to the gear in question is just not useful, and muddies the informational waters to a degree that makes reading through threads like these a slavish bore to people with any experience and a swamp of compounded misinformation to people without. An impression from a meet is loads more informative than some of the stuff that passes for advice here.

Still, there are sages of sound to be found here, and the community spirit is strong. I just wish we had a rule like: "If you haven't heard it or something closely related to it don't tell other people how you think it should sound." It might propel us more towards a respectable middle ground.

If it makes anyone feel better I heard a pretty big sound difference with my x-fi going from no asio to using it.

In fact, I was quite adamant that my x-fi sounded fine and nothing could change. I thought it was all hogwash too like HA. but with my headphones it made a massive difference not to tone or colour, but more to clarity.

Is it all placebo? No but perhaps yes. If you don't know what to expect from a device and you listen to it for the first time as I did to a modded MD-10 then when you hear the new sound it's a genuine 'wow'. Of course it fades as you get used to it, but still....whereas I think I had a placebo 'wow' when listening to the HD650.

Then again, I've been told that the 'reverb' I can hear with my new DAC is 3d air and spatialisation and layering....sounds like reverb to me :S
But whether reverb or not, it sounds fantastic. Same with ASIO.

p.s. it's only a placebo effect if you don't have the right gear. e.g. When i went from HD595 to SA5000 I definitely felt sheepish because I couldn't get the placebo to work. Throw in a better source and wham bam I hear the difference immediately and with no desire to discover any love for an old pair of SA5000s I find my preferred headset. Before I regretted the purchase, with ASIO and DAC I'm grateful I didn't sell it.

Just my 2ds on placebo, Asio and stuff.

I still think that many on head-fi do live in the clouds though
I'll always be a sceptic at heart which paradoxically drives my desire to test everything and be proved right...although I won't complain if I'm proved wrong either! haha. my wallet will.

That would be a great idea.

I second that idea....or third it, as it were.

Couldn't agree more!!

HA is the superior forum simply because Google ads are better then this flashing in your face nonsense here and a community of engineers is more comforting then the community of lawyers here.

I post here because I can dabble in the realm of pusedo science and look at pretty pictures.